I have started many a school year just like the students: keen to get going, plus shaking the BBQs out of my system, seeing which of my forgotten school trousers still fit, storing the rest of the wine in a cupboard ready to be consumed at the weekend and dusting off the briefcase from where I left it in those heady days at the end of July.

So, what's next on my agenda? Performance management will start again: just as onerous for managers as for NQTs, the exam results, dread and excitement in equal measure: avoiding the head's gaze or trying to catch it on the first day, depending on how well my students have done. How quickly the first few weeks go: like the holiday never happened. And every day there is a new challenge: reports having to be written ridiculously early, an open day to get ready for, and so on. Why did I moan about putting the gazebo up last month?

I have had exactly one hundred terms like this: 33 Septembers. I have really loved it.

However, there have been times when I have carried on with a sense of fear, especially on certain days of the week. I have even started to dread those days. If things hadn't improved, my self-confidence might have dropped, my life affected, not just my teaching.

So here are some of my top tips for the start of the school year; ways of reducing the stress before it has even started, or as Bill Shankly, the great Liverpool manager once said: "Get your retaliation in first."

• Don't try to be perfect. Nobody is, and all you can do is fail. Allow yourself to fail and learn. It's called being human. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." (Henry Ford)

• Get out of your black and white thinking: this is where everything is either good or bad, including the students. Allow for shades of different colour in your teaching and in your life.

• Don't define your existence by calling yourself a teacher: make sure there are plenty of other things you enjoy.

• When things get on top of you, reframe your thinking. There might be a student who disrupts your year 9 class, but how many good kids in the room make up for that?

• The only way to solve a problem is to solve it. Teachers are good at knowing what to do when something is not right, but often not very good at doing it. Talk to a colleague about things more often than eating comfort food at break. Although, the odd cream cake can work wonders.

• Don't be a yes man/woman. If a colleague is constantly telling you how stressful the job is, you don't always have to agree. Challenging negative communication can be good for both sides.

• Keep your to-do list up to date, and do it. It's one of the biggest stress relievers.

• Stop telling everyone how busy you are - it becomes self-fulfilling.

• Seek advice from teachers you trust.

• Talk to students in corridors, especially the ones you don't get on with in class. It really affects and improves your relationships, and therefore the teaching and learning in your lessons.

• Keep smiling. When you've retired you'll miss the hurly-burly, and talk about your school like it's an old friend. Enjoy.

Chris Hunt taught for 33 years in four different schools, in roles ranging from head of department to assistant headteacher. Chris is a life-coach and psychotherapist with a special interest in what motivates or demotivates people in the workplace. He has spent the last two years building a new business based on enabling people to manage their emotions via an online system and also runs the website Stress In Teaching. He recently won the Queens Award for Enterprise.